Guardians of the Galaxy Episode 5 Review – Don’t Stop Believin’ (PS4)

November 8, 2017Written by Tyler Treese

Episode four of Telltale Games’ Guardians of the Galaxy series ended with the crew becoming fractured. Too many differences had grown, many due to the player’s own choices, and it looked to be the end of the Guardians. Naturally, this means that much of Don’t Stop Believin’ is built around winning back your former comrades before setting off to the final battle against Hala.

After some serious self-reflection from Peter, it’s up to players to make things right by locating the former members with some help from Mantis and the best member of the team, Groot. Since Gamora had stayed with me, that meant I only had to go visit Rocket and Drax. Both of the scenes that followed were excellent, as they focused on the characters moving beyond the trauma of their lives, and letting go of the past. As with much of the season, Drax manages to steal the episode with some hilarious dialogue. The series has managed to stay funny throughout despite a lot of serious moments, and the final episode is no different.

These moments are great reflections of why the Guardians of the Galaxy work so well together. It’s not just that their odd set of skills and eccentricities complement each other, it’s that they’re truly friends. This means working together to solve issues, and sometimes depending on others in moments of weakness. They might be highly dysfunctional, but ultimately they’re a tight-knit team that is brought together by emotional bonds.

Crazy On You

Flashbacks have been a major part of Guardians of the Galaxy, and it continues here. This time around, players get to see the past from Groot’s perspective. Unlike the others, though, it doesn’t focus on his early life, but rather how the Guardians first met and teamed up.

This winds up being one of the greatest scenes in the entire season, as you get to see Star Lord looking sleazier than Joey Ryan, and rocking an amazing porn ‘stache. If that wasn’t funny enough, players get to choose the dialogue for Groot during this sequence, and I decided to just talk about the mustache the entire time. Sure, all the others (besides Rocket) could only understand “I am Groot,” but I was still cracking up at the internal thought process.

Another return is the use of licensed music during major moments, and the game’s final boss fight is accompanied by “Crazy on You” by Heart. This sequence is already an intense fight, since Hala has become quite the foe since absorbing the Eternity Forge, but the great music really kicks it into high gear. The use of licensed music really is brilliant, as they never overly rely on it, and make each song really count in its one-time use.

Farewell, Guardians

I’ve been critical of some of Telltale Games’ endings in the past, but I really enjoyed how Guardians of the Galaxy wrapped up. Did I regret some of the choices I made? Definitely. But more importantly, I felt as if the team had legitimately grown due to some poor judgment calls, even if poor Groot was missing an arm by the end.

Don’t Stop Believin’ isn’t the strongest episode of the series, but it does mark a rather fitting end to Telltale Games’ Guardians of the Galaxy. All of the different story threads (even Howard the Duck’s unrequited emails to the gang) have been wrapped up nicely with a bow atop them, and all of the Guardians are geared up for another adventure after the game ends with a great tease. I certainly hope this isn’t the last we’ll see of the gang, as Telltale did a great job delving into their pasts in this series, and the future looks even brighter.